Jazzed Up Burgers

In my opinion, when you have great ground chuck, you shouldn't add anything to it other than salt.  However, for those times that your beef source isn't the best, this recipe will help elevate those burgers. 

Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I needed a quick and healthy dinner that would appease both my husband and my picky toddler.  I'm a huge fan of cashews and lettuce wraps, so I thought, "Hey, let's try Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps!".   It only took about 20 minutes to make, and everyone gobbled the wraps right up.  Success!

Gnocchi alla Caprese

So you may have noticed that my blog has been quiet for the past few months.  This spring we decided to put our first family home on the market and buy a new home in a neighboring county.  It was a difficult decision as we loved, loved, loved our home.  Fortunately we found a great home to buy, and we ended up closing on both our old house and new house on the same day in the middle of June.  Let me tell you... packing up our entire house with a crawling baby and a moody toddler, a double closing, and moving on a 103 degree day...it was a nightmare!  Needless to say, these past few months have been difficult ones.  We had to make many sacrifices:  we missed out on a fun friends trip, family dinners were replaced by take-out, and we lost our summer garden!  My husband planted it all before we realized we were going to put our house up for sale.  Of course right as everything in the garden started growing, we moved.  So for the first time in many summers, we don't have our summer garden vegetables to enjoy.  Boo!

However, we can still buy in-season veggies at the local grocery store (Earth Fare!).  Nothing beats an in-season tomato paired with fresh basil, right?  Let me introduce you to the perfect recipe for the season: Gnocchi alla Caprese. This recipe is definitely a summer-only recipe, because it requires in-season produce in order to reach its full delicious potential.   It takes only about 20 minutes to make, and its simplicity really allows the fresh ingredients to shine.  I could seriously eat this meal every day, and so could my kids.  Which is good, because I might be serving it at least once a week for the rest of the summer!

Zuppa Toscana

My favorite new recipe find this season is Gimme Some Oven's 7-Ingredient Easy Zuppa Toscana.  It's a creamy Italian soup made with sausage and gnocchi, and it warms up your entire body when you eat it.  It's super simple to make, and takes only about half an hour to whip up.  While this hearty soup definitely tastes like it's an indulgent high calorie meal, it's actually under 450 calories for a huge bowl of it.  So slurp away!

15 Minute Spaghetti Squash Curry

A few months ago, my brother and sister-in-law came over for dinner and we each made our favorite Asian-style recipes to share with each other.  I made my Asian Lettuce Wraps and they made a Spaghetti Squash Curry.  I was astonished that such a tasty meal (and boy was it tasty!) was so quick and easy to prepare!  You can jazz it up with your favorite sautéed vegetables and/or proteins (I like tofu, red bell pepper, and mushrooms), or you can keep it simple and just serve it as is.   The simplicity of this delicious recipe, has made it into one of our regular family dinners.

Easy Stir-Fried Tofu

The first time I ever had tofu, I was not a huge fan.  Then one day, at our local vegetarian restaurant The Grit, I ordered something called "The Golden Bowl" and was stunned to realize that the delicious morsels I was inhaling, was in fact, tofu.  I realized then that tofu can be amazing when prepared and cooked correctly...and kind of gross when it isn't.  If you are new to tofu, make sure to reference my earlier post on how to correctly prepare tofu before you try out this recipe (Tofu for Dummies).  This recipe is a great new-to-tofu recipe; easy to make and only takes about ten minutes to cook.  Make sure not to skip the nutritional yeast; it's the best part! You can find it in the bulk section of your local Earth Fare grocery store.  It's a great thing to have on hand to add a cheesy flavor to dishes while upping its nutritional profile.  

Chocolate & Coconut Oatmeal Cups

My almost-3 year old daughter reached a new milestone this month:  she started preschool!  She is a highly social person who is eager to learn, so of course she adores it.  As for me, I adore having three mornings a week free to clean, write up blog entries, or just simply zone out in front of the computer for a few hours.  What I don't adore?  Trying to get both of us ready in the morning.  With me being 8 months pregnant, and my daughter being in the "I-wanna-do-everything-myself" phase, we are always in a rush to get to school on time.  Fortunately, I found the perfect breakfast for those hurried mornings:  Baked Oatmeal Cups.  It's a breakfast that can be made ahead of time, and is great to eat on-the-go (like in the car on the way to to school).  It's filled with all sorts of nutritional goodness, like rolled oats and flaxseed, but tastes enough like dessert so your kid will scarf it down.    

Peanut Butter Pancakes

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I've recently been diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes.  It can be a struggle to find foods that are both low carb and meet my pregnancy cravings.  One of the hardest cravings for me to ignore are pancakes; they just taste so good right now!  Fortunately, the awesome blog Detoxinista had the perfect solution:  grain free Almond Butter Pancakes.  I made them immediately, and while they didn't taste exactly like traditional pancakes, they were delicious in their own right.  The next time I made them, I switched out the almond butter for peanut butter, and upped the cinnamon, and found them to be even tastier to me.  They are a breeze to make, and low carb enough where I can even have a drizzle of real maple syrup on top.  Yum!

Southwestern Sloppy Joes

Southwestern Sloppy Joes is one of those recipes that I've been making for almost a decade now, and yet still it love as much as I did the first time I made it.  It's zesty and messy and downright delicious.  It's the type of meal where you should probably use paper towels instead of napkins, but opt for neither, so that you have an excuse to lick your fingers.  I wish I could take credit for coming up with this recipe,  but I actually found it in a Cuisine Tonight magazine, the "Sandwiches & Salads" edition.  Whatever you do, do NOT skip the coleslaw.  It's the best part!

Summer Garden Gnocchi

Our family just returned from a fabulous beach trip; the last family trip with just the three of us.  Next time, our number will be four! As wonderful as the vacation was, I'm feeling exhausted this week from all the excitement.  I've been too tired to make it to the grocery store, which means our kitchen is depressingly empty.  Fortunately, I sometimes view an empty fridge as a fun challenge, and become motivated to try to create a new recipe using only what I have on hand.  

Avocado Egg Salad

I've been craving egg salad like mad during this pregnancy.  Years ago, when I studied abroad in England, I literally ate an egg salad sandwich on a baguette every single day for lunch.  Across the pond they call it an "Egg Mayo Sandwich", which is a more truthful name for this delicious sandwich.  Unfortunately, it's also a reminder that perhaps it isn't the most healthy of concoctions.  Since I'm trying to stay as healthy as possible during this pregnancy, I decided to make a more nutritious version of egg salad; using predominately avocado instead of mayonnaise.  Of course, seeing as how avocados are the fruits of the gods, it was absolutely delicious.  Now I can guiltlessly give in to my cravings.  Now if only I could find a healthy version of Almond Snickers...

Spinach Pesto Pasta

It's time again for this month's Earth Fare recipe!  Like my other Earth Fare recipes, I chose a recipe that represents the spirit of my blog: family friendly, quick to prepare, inexpensive to make, and healthy and delicious to eat.  

Like many other parents, the battle to get my child to eat anything green is an epic one.  And to be perfectly honest, I probably don't eat enough of the green stuff either.  I attempted to get my daughter to try a bite of a salad the other day, and she took one look at the spinach, and stated "I don't eat leaves, Mommy".  (Whatever kid, you spent your first two years  of life eating leaves and sticks every time we went outside.)  After a particularly unflattering moment of jealousy after seeing yet another Facebook post of a mom announcing about how much her kid loves kale, I decided to get creative.  What if I made pesto, but it had a spinach base instead of basil?  A quick google search showed me that I wasn't the first to come up with this notion, which further encouraged me that this might be a great idea after all.  

Shrimp Tacos with Sriracha Crema

The seafood used in a recipe can make or break a meal.  My husband actually thought he hated shrimp until I was finally able to get him to try some fresh shrimp while in Savannah.  Now he loves it...as long as we get it from a reputable source. This is a particular problem in a town like Athens, where the ocean is is a good 5 hours away, with no interstates leading from the coast.  Needless to say, most of our grocery stores don't sell the freshest seafood.  So we rely on our local Earth Fare, where they always have a great selection of fresh seafood.  

Cheesy Hamburger Macaroni

Today's blog post is a special one!  I've been chosen to write and share a recipe for one of my favorite grocery stores:  Earth Fare.  Normally when I grocery shop, I spend an inordinate amount of time reading the labels of every item I'm considering purchasing, and then scanning it on the phone app Fooducate to ensure I'm not getting something with scary ingredients.  I don't have to do that at Earth Fare.  I can trust that everything in the store has already been well vetted.  Their company vision is to be the most trusted organic and natural food market in the country.  Nothing in their store contains high fructose corn syrup, artificial color or sweeteners, synthetic growth hormones, and trans fat.  If other big chain grocery stores did that, half the store would be empty!  

Ham & Cheese Gnocchi

The South just survived what the forecasters were calling a "historical" snow storm.  Thankfully Athens just received sleet and snow, instead of freezing rain and ice, so we were able to enjoy a winter wonderland this week, instead of a crippling catastrophic event.  Even though the snow is now melting, I'm still finding myself craving comfort food.  For some odd reason, I am specifically craving French comfort food--a Croque Monsieur, to be exact.  

If you've never had the pleasure of eating one, a Croque Monsieur is a decadent ham and swiss sandwich that has been grilled and topped with a béchamel sauce.  This dish, however, is a bit high in calories, and perhaps isn't the most kid-friendly dish, so I set out to recreate the dish to make it more in our family's style.  I decided to reimagine the dish as a pasta; using gnocchi instead of bread, and a white cheese sauce instead of a béchamel sauce.  

This dish, my dear readers, is so far my absolute favorite dish of 2014.  I originally wanted to name my pasta Gnocchi alla Croque Monsier, but I was afraid it would make the recipe sound too intimidating, when nothing could be further from the truth.  It was so quick and easy to make (less than thirty minutes!) and both my husband and kid gobbled it up.  If you keep your portion size reasonable and pair it with a light salad, this meal easily remains under 500 calories. 

Orange Chicken

Lately I've been working extra hard to find recipes that I can get my whole family to eat.  My child is a notoriously picky eater, so dinner time can be an epic struggle when I try to serve something like Posole or Moroccan Chicken.  I was therefore excited when Gimme Some Oven's Orange Chicken recipe popped up on my Pinterest page.  It sounded like a dish that would not only be super easy and inexpensive to prepare, but also husband and child-friendly.  I substituted some of the chicken for broccoli to amp up its nutritional value, and served it with a side of sautéed bok choy instead of over rice.  My husband said it was the best Orange Chicken he's ever had, hands down.  My daughter (although suspicious at first) even ate it, which in our house, counts as a huge win.  Success!

Buffalo Turkey Burgers with Blue Cheese & Broccoli Slaw

A few years ago, I was traveling up to Canada to attend a good friend's wedding.  I flew into Buffalo, NY and from there planned on taking a train the rest of the way. I had a few hours to kill before my train departed, so I decided to explore the city.  I soon found myself at the famous Anchor Bar, also known as the birthplace of Buffalo Wings. This, my friends, is the moment where my obsession with buffalo sauce begins.  Oddly enough, while I love the sauce, I'm not a huge fan of eating chicken wings (too much work!), so I'm always looking out for other ways to indulge my obsession.  Recently, I stumbled upon a recipe from Skinnytaste that looked so alluring that I had to make it RIGHT THEN.  I altered the recipe just a bit to suit my tastes, by substituting red bell pepper for the carrots, and changing a few other things to make it a bit easier to prepare.  So, what was the verdict?  My husband took one bite, looked at me, and said "I'm so glad you are my wife".

Zesty Turkey Burgers with Sriracha Mayo

As you have likely noticed, I'm a big fan of Pinterest.  When it's time for me to do my meal planning for the week, I look at my "Healthy Food" board on Pinterest, and make whatever recipe photo catches my eye.  This week, Kitchen Confidante's picture of their Cilantro-Sriracha Turkey Burgers was what made my stomach growl.  Since my tummy had spoken, I made these Zesty Turkey Burgers, and they were fabulous.  Easy to make, healthy to ingest, heaven to eat.  Win, win, win.

Avocado Chicken Salad

I kind of love it when I realize that I have no idea what I'm going to make for dinner, and it's too late to run out to the grocery store to get supplies.  The situation forces me to be creative, and come up with a dish using only the ingredients I already have on hand.  It's like I'm a contestant on Top Chef!  This is what happened to me last night.  I had leftover diced chicken, a few limes, an avocado that was about to be over-ripe, and an unopened bag of raw cashews. As usual, my fridge was stocked with cilantro, sour cream, and mayonnaise, and so I created....Avocado Chicken Salad with Cashews.  I topped the finished product with a hefty drizzle of Sriracha Sauce, and found myself fan-girling over my own recipe.  

Rhinestone Cowboy Caviar

On of my favorite recipes in the world was created by my amazingly talented friend Jessica.  It's so delicious, inexpensive, quick, and easy to make that it has become a weekly staple in our house for over five years.  No other recipe has managed that kind of longevity in my kitchen.  The recipe is a take on the famous Cowboy Caviar dip, which Jessica jazzed up into an entree, and declared it Rhinestone Cowboy Caviar.